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Albert Bierstadt

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Albert Bierstadt
Albert Bierstadt by Napoleon Sarony
Born(1830-01-07)January 7, 1830
Solingen, Germany
DiedFebruary 18, 1902(1902-02-18) (aged 72)
New York City, New York
NationalityGerman-American
EducationDüsseldorf School
Known forPainting
MovementHudson River School

Albert Bierstadt (January 7, 1830 – February 18, 1902) was a German-American painter best known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West. In obtaining the subject matter for these works, Bierstadt joined several journeys of the Westward Expansion. Though not the first artist to record these sites, Bierstadt was the foremost painter of these scenes for the remainder of the 19th century.

Bierstadt was part of the Hudson River School, not an institution but rather an informal group of like-minded painters. The Hudson River School style involved carefully detailed paintings with romantic, almost glowing lighting, sometimes called luminism. An important interpreter of the western landscape, Bierstadt, along with Thomas Moran, is also grouped with the Rocky Mountain School.[1]

Biography

Bierstadt was born in Solingen, Germany. His family moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1831. He developed a taste for art early and made clever crayon sketches in his youth. In 1851, he began to paint in oils.[2] He studied painting with the members of the Düsseldorf school of painting in Düsseldorf from 1853 to 1857. He taught drawing and painting briefly before devoting himself to painting.

File:Bierstadt map.gif
Map of Bierstadt's journey in 1859 and 1863.

Bierstadt began making paintings in New England and upstate New York. In 1859, he traveled westward in the company of Frederick W. Lander, a land surveyor for the U.S. government, returning with sketches that would result in numerous finished paintings. In 1863 he returned west again, in the company of the author Fitz Hugh Ludlow, whose wife he would later marry. He continued to visit the American West throughout his career.

Though his paintings sold for princely sums, Bierstadt was not held in particularly high esteem by critics of his day. His use of uncommonly large canvases was thought to be an egotistical indulgence, as his paintings would invariably dwarf those of his contemporaries when they were displayed together. The romanticism evident in his choices of subject[3] and in his use of light was felt to be excessive by contemporary critics. His paintings emphasized atmospheric elements like fog, clouds and mist to accentuate and complement the feel of his work. Bierstadt sometimes changed details of the landscape to inspire awe. The colors he used are also not always true. He painted what he believed was the way things should be: water is ultramarine, vegetation is lush and green, etc.

Nonetheless, in 1860 he was elected a member of the National Academy; he received medals in Austria, Bavaria, Belgium, and Germany;[4] and his paintings remain popular. He was a prolific artist, having completed over 500[5] (possibly as many as 4000) paintings during his lifetime, most of which have survived. Many are scattered through museums around the United States. Prints are available commercially for many. Original paintings themselves do occasionally come up for sale, at ever increasing prices.

In 1882 his studio at Irvington, New York, was destroyed by fire, with many of his pictures.[2]

Existing work

Staubbach Falls, Near Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland, 1865
Yosemite Valley, Yosemite Park, c. 1868, Oakland Museum, Oakland, California
Storm in the Mountains, c. 1870
Mount Corcoran, c. 1876-1877, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Legacy

Bierstadt Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park
  • Because of Bierstadt's interest in mountain landscapes, Mount Bierstadt and Bierstadt Lake in Colorado are named in his honor. Bierstadt was probably the first European to visit the summit of Mount Evans in 1863, 1.5 miles from Mount Bierstadt.[6] Bierstadt named it Mount Rosa, a reference to both Monte Rosa above Zermatt and, Rosalie Ludlow, his future wife, but the name was changed from Rosalie to Evans in 1895 in honor of Colorado governor John Evans.
  • In 1998, the United States Postal Service issued a set of 20 commemorative stamps entitled "Four Centuries of American Art", one of which featured Albert Bierstadt's The Last of the Buffalo.[7] In 2008, the USPS issued a commemorative stamp in its "American Treasures" series featuring Bierstadt's 1864 painting Valley of the Yosemite.[8]
  • Valley of the Yosemite[9] also appears in a scene in Terry Gilliam's 1995 film Twelve Monkeys, accompanied by several doctors singing Blueberry Hill (song).[10]
  • William Bliss Baker, another landscape artist, studied under Bierstadt.

Footnotes

  1. ^ "Picturing America's Natural Cathedrals". Tfaoi.com. Retrieved 2012-05-20.
  2. ^ a b public domain Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. ^ "Albert Bierstadt Images". Images.google.com. Retrieved 2012-05-20.
  4. ^ public domain Reynolds, Francis J., ed. (1921). "Bierstadt, Albert" . Collier's New Encyclopedia. New York: P. F. Collier & Son Company.
  5. ^ Glenda Moore (2004-09-09). "xmission.com". xmission.com. Retrieved 2012-12-19.
  6. ^ William Newton Byers, Bierstadt's Visit to Colorado -- Sketching for the famous painting Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Magazine of Western History, Vol. XI, No. 3, Jan. 1890; page 237.
  7. ^ "ArtOnStamps.org". ArtOnStamps.org. 2010-07-09. Retrieved 2012-05-20.
  8. ^ "The Postal Store @ USPS.com". Shop.usps.com. 2011-03-28. Retrieved 2012-05-20.
  9. ^ "image of Valley of the Yosemite". Retrieved 2012-12-19.
  10. ^ Twelve Monkeys trivia page at IMDB

Selected paintings

See also

References

  • Anderson, Nancy K. et al. Albert Bierstadt, Art & Enterprise, Hudson Hills Press, Inc.: New York, New York, 1990.
  • Hendricks, Gordon. Albert Bierstadt, Painter of the American West, Harrison House/Harry N. Abrams, Inc.: New York, New York 1988.
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